An employee of the Latino Network receives a vaccine shot so she can safely help out at shelters for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. Latino Network was one of many culturally specific Portland-area nonprofits that helped Multnomah County use federal pandemic aid to help people of color. (Photo from Multnomah County Flickr account.)
An audit of how Multnomah County handled $160 million in federal pandemic aid over a period of many months this year and last found the money was managed well in line with federal requirements and devoted, as county leaders had pledged, primarily to helping people of color.
The team of county auditors did find two isolated instances of mess ups: One in which the wrong service provider was paid for work done by another vendor and a more serious mistake, in which an employee broke the rules, which led to payment being teed up to a firm with a history of fraud that was ineligible for federal funds.
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